CaseLaw
Sylva V. INEC & Ors (2015) CLR 3(d) (SC)
Judgement delivered on March 6th 2015
Brief
Facts
My Lords, the suit from which this appeal emanated is an offshoot of the judgment of this Court delivered on 27th January, 2012 in Marwa vs. Nyako (2012) 5 NWLR (Pt. 1296) 199. Here are the relevant facts:
The appellant who was the Governor of Bayelsa State had, by the time the said judgment was delivered on 27/1/2012, overstayed his mandate, the same having expired on 29th May 2011.
The 1st Respondent, the Independent National Electoral Commission, held the view, and rightly so as events turned out, that the four year tenure of the appellant would end on 28th May, 2011 and prepared for the next gubernatorial election. The 2nd Respondent, the Peoples Democratic Party, conducted her primary election in January, 2011 at which the appellant emerged as the candidate of the 2nd Respondent at the then coming election. His name and particulars were sent to the 1st Respondent.
However, before the election at which he was to represent his party as the governorship candidate could be held, appellant approached the Federal High Court sitting at Yenogoa, Bayelsa State, seeking a declaration that his term had not ended but was still running. The judgment of the Federal High Court, granting the relief sought by the appellant was affirmed by the Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt.
In compliance with the judgments, the electoral umpire, the 1st Respondent, cancelled the 2011 election, the appellant continued in office as Governor of Bayelsa State as the Federal High Court decided, and the Court of Appeal affirmed, that the tenure of office of the appellant would expire on 28th January, 2012. Accordingly to the 2nd Respondent as well as the appellant, abandoned the primary election at which he, the appellant, was nominated the 2nd Respondent's candidate at the election that should have been held in 2011.
Before that matter could get to the Supreme Court, the 2nd Respondent announced a date in February, 2012 for the conduct of the election in Bayelsa State. In the subsequent primary election conducted by the 2nd Respondent, the appellant abandoned the result of the 2011 primaries and purchased forms for the 2012 election. He was screened and dropped by the 2nd Respondent.
As a result of his exclusion from the election, appellant filed suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/93/2011 which gave rise to appeals Nos. SC.9/2012 and SC.28/2012 in which the Supreme Court held in the judgment delivered on 20th April, 2012 that the election for which the appellant was nominated by the 2nd Respondent was cancelled and that the appellant, by seeking to contest the primary for the 2012 election, had abandoned the nomination he won for the 2011 election that was cancelled.
In an attempt to validate his nomination for the April, 2011 election that was cancelled and to claim the benefits of the 2nd Respondent's victory in the 2012 election the appellant went back to Court.
In the originating summons issued at the Registry of the Federal High Court sitting at Yenegoa against the 1st Respondent as the sole defendant, the plaintiff (now appellant) on 21/1/2013 raised 5 issues and praying for the following reliefs:
The 1st, 2nd and 3rd Respondents, by their respective applications dated 18/3/2013, 14/3/2013 and 15/3/2013, raised preliminary objections to the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court to adjudicate in the matter.
In a consolidated ruling on the three applications, the learned trial Court upheld the preliminary objections.
Appellant was aggrieved and he appealed the consolidated rulings to the Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt, which Court, in its judgment delivered on 13th January, 2014 dismissed the appeal and affirmed the rulings of the trial Court.
A further appeal was launched to the apex court.